Keep Calm and Insert Coin: Pac Man Fever

Ok, normally I write about the video games that I played in my youth years. But this time, I am going to do something different. I want to talk about music for a moment. Oh man, the 80’s. I don’t care what you say, I think that the best music of MY years was the 80’s. So many great bands and songs that there are way to many to list. If you are wanting to get a list of the best songs, just google 80’s music.

But some of the songs that I do remember were “Jump”, “Take on Me” and “Ghostbusters” just to name a few. But like all music lovers there are albums and artists that are completely unexpected and actually end up pretty good in the end. Take Buckner and Garcia. Note, not Jerry Garcia. He was with the Grateful Dead. But these two were onto something when they created one of the best additions to the video game world. “Pac-Man Fever” was the. first album that talked about nothing but video games.

Never before has there been an album that catered to the arcade game of the 80’s. I remember when I first got it too. It was one of the coolest presents that my brother David got me back then. He knew that I could never stay out of the arcades and knew that this would hold me off until the next trip to the arcade.

So taking the record out was even the coolest first step. The paper sleeve that held the record had patterns on it for actually beating the pattern for Pac-Man. That was a win win for me. But the tracks were even better. “Do the Donkey Kong”, “Ode to a Centipede”, “Pac-Man Fever”, “Hyperspace”, and “Froggys Lament”, are some of the songs that I found myself playing over and over again. One reason was, even though I had an Atari 2600, I loved playing the songs when I was playing the games. It just seemed so fitting.

To this day, I still have the record and would love to have them sign it. They also recently did a song for the Wreck It Ralph soundtrack. But the question remains. Is this the best album to have? It’s all a matter of opinion. I at one time thought Sesame Street Fever was the best as well as Smurfs from Space. Shut up, I was young. It is an excellent addition to have to your video game collection. If you can’t find vinyl, you can get the album on iTunes and Amazon. They have a couple other songs but, different album. So it’s time to blow the dust off the album and see if I can fix that one small scratch. Drop the needle and…..

Brad has been a die hard arcade fan ever since he can remember. From the first time he played Space Invaders, to the first time he played Pacman, Brad has always had a love for video games. Hanging out at either the Great American Fun Factory in the mall, or spending the night in front of the glowing games at the local roller rink, he was always thinking about when he can spend the next quarter.
He also worked at Babbages, which is now GameStop, for over six years. Mostly because they had a really sweet checkout policy on new products and great discounts. But since he had the Atari 2600, he has never looked back and owned some of the greatest home machines, NES, SNES, GENESIS, Turbo Graphix 16, GameBoy, Game Gear, Lynx, Playsation 1,2,3,4 and Vita, XBOX, Gamecube, and N64...just to name a few.
Brad is also a reviewer for Mobile Beat Magazine as well as a freelance videographer, part time disc jockey, performing artist and photographer. But has a true love is for video games and Star Wars, as he is a member of the 501st Central Garrison.
His ultimate dream is to own a fully working pinball machine and arcade machine. Difficult to say which one, but a Star Wars one would be nice start.

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2 Comments

Ducky
on November 11, 2017 at 8:24 am

A couple of notes:

You could not actually get them both to sign it now, as Gary Garcia passed away several years ago. Also, the songs available on the music services now are modern re-creations by the group. If you want the actual songs as they sounded in the 80’s, you’d have to find the original vinyl and rip it yourself, or locate original rips on the internet.